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Day 2 of the National Schools Sevens saw the festival tournament taking place and the start of the Colts (U-16) tournament. After a great start to the championships on tuesday the older boys lived up to the hype as the quality of the National School Sevens was evident for everyone to see.

The festival competition is an Under-18 boys tournament for schools who play rugby as a major sport for only one term of each school year. Coming into the tournament it was usual contender Wellington College who were favorites following their victory over Millfield in the Surrey Sevens last weekend.

Wellington's biggest rivals for the title emerged early with Oakham, Cranleigh and Epsom winning their groups comfortably. They were joined in the latter stages by the always strong Barnard Castle, St Peter's York and Tonbridge and former winners Cheltenham College.

After some large score lines in the quarter finals the scene was set for a tense semi-final stage with Wellington taking on St Peters, York, and Epsom facing Bryanston. In the first semi-final St Peters were looking to go one stage further than they did in the National 15s championship where they lost to their namesake in Gloucester, but it was not to be as the school from the North of England were tripped at the final hurdle by a classy Wellington team who won out 17-10 in a closely fought match. The second semi was even closer with the men from Epsom College who had played some lovely rugby all day out-battling Bryanston 10-7 in a match where both teams showed enormous heart and that defense is where championships are won and lost.

This set up the final between the festival's most succesful team over the years, Wellington, and the pretenders to the crown, Epsom. The final did not dissapoint with both teams going all out to take the title and showing the crowd how 7s should be played with some expansive rugby that you would expect to see at the IRB Sevens this weekend in Hong Kong. It was Wellington though that ran out winners in a deserved but hard fought 19-12 scoreline, bringing back memories of when Wellington dominated the festival in the late 90s.

Not to be outdone, the Colts competition started with a bang yesterday setting up some mouth watering Quarter-Finals for today. The pick of the round has to be Tonbridge who dominated on the first day taking on perenial challengers at all levels, Millfield. Both schools played some great rugby running up big scores over reputable opposition in Colstons and LLandovery respectively. Alongside Millfield as the most succesful school in the National Sevens is Ampleforth, who also take their place in the round. Will old rivalries be renewed?

The tournament is anyone's to win and it's going to take some great 7s rugby. The final 8 teams would have struggled to sleep last night knowing the are merely 3 games away from the glory of a national title.

The Quarter-Final Draw in full.

Millfield v Tonbridge

RGS High Wycombe v The Oratory

Whitgift v Ampleforth

Bedford v Blundells

Today sees the conclusion of the Colts Tournament and the commencement of the girls and open competition, once again the largest 7s tournament in the world providing a feast of fast, flowing, exciting rugby.